Railz

Railz is a blockchain based protocol for machine to machine negotiation. The goal of this project is to give IoT devices tools to communicate and self-organise without human intervention.

How it works:

M2M communication drives forwards such industries as warehouse management, robotics, traffic control, logistic services, supply chain management and many others. The problem with the current state of machine-to-machine exchange is lack of scalability and suitable standards. Most of M2M protocols are developed specifically for the project at hand and are incompatible with other devices.

Railz is a protocol designed to scale. The company’s vision is for it to become the standard. Railz introduces technology that would allow Internet of Things devices to reach consensus, rather than agree or disagree, operation on a P2P basis. This protocol allows for a throughput 20-30 times higher that Ethereum does, while being compatible with ERC20 tokens. With Railz the need for centralised trading networks disappears.

Innovation:

Simple as it is, this idea is backed by a staggering amount of new technology. The protocol offers a significantly higher throughput and brings standardisation into this industry.

Innovation score: High

Token value:

RLZ is a utility token. Every time a machine-to-machine conversation reaches consensus, the company takes a utility fee. It is taken in fractions of RLZ, Rivetz, but the sheer amount of devices that are going to be a part of the network compensates for that.

As more and more companies join Railz, tapping thousands of machines into the system, the demand for RLZ is going to go up, driving its price.

Token value score: Medium

White paper:

The project’s white paper only makes an overview of the concept and delivers information on ICO. It does it in a brief, simple language.

The yellow paper presents technical details of the project. This document is well structured and gives detailed information on how does the protocol achieve its aims.

White paper score: High

Roadmap:

Railz presents two roadmaps. The first one shows business plan with the time frames, the other details what actions exactly are to be taken in different funding scenarios.

The company will expand the team by August 2018 and will be developing the protocol up to the first quarter of 2019. We’ll see a beta version in December 2018.

In July 2018 the team plans to start finding and negotiating with early adopters among major firms and innovative SMEs. By the end of 2019 they should have found them. In 2019 the protocol will be released to early adopters.

In the case the ICO gathers only the soft cap, the team will build relationships with IoT experts, aim for adoption by innovators and create a centralised marketing and PR team. B2B relationships are going to be managed by CEO.

If the ICO reaches the hard cap, to all the activities above the company will add regional offices in China, Germany, Korea, Japan, USA and UK. Each regional centre will have its own B2B team. The company will start brand building and developing proof of concept in collaboration with leading innovators.

Roadmap score: High

Business model:

The business model is not explicitly mentioned in the white paper or on the official website, the links to papers on business plan don’t seem to work. Yet we are able to judge business model and marketing strategy on bits and pieces of information that are given throughout the existing documentation.

The protocol charges a small fee in Rivetz each time a machine to machine negotiation reaches consensus. Think how many warehouses one retailer might have, how many IoT devices operate in one warehouse, and how many interactions do they have in one day. Even with a tiny fee, the revenue, once the company acquires enough customers, is going to be enormous.

The marketing efforts, as you can see in the roadmap assessment, are focused on USA, Germany and Asian market. If the ICO only reaches the soft cap, CEO will be in charge of B2B relationships until sufficient funding for a team is found.

Business model score: High

Team:

The company’s CEO has held senior positions since 1990 and has been working as managing partner and director in different companies since 1999. He worked for AXA and AOL, switching to the cryptocurrency sector in recent years. The co-founder was a technology leader in 1990s and is one of the 100 people who have driven the first decade of the commercial internet. He acts as an advisor in the company.

Chief Blockchain Architect is a part of senior management and strategic team of leading IoT firm, Winjit Inc. IoT design lead was awarded with the Businessworld Leadership & CIO award in 2017 for Best IoT Implementation.

The only advisor the team has, except the co-founder, is a man with more than 15 years of experience in law, who provides legal assistance for ICOs.

Team score: High

Competitors:

Most of M2M communication solution implemented in businesses are single purposed to serve a particular business aim. Algorithms that involve negotiation rather than communication exist only on paper as a part of scientific research.

Railz introduces this kind of solution to the market. Right now, it is unrivalled.

Competitors score: High

Overall thoughts:

Railz bring an innovative solution to the market. The team behind it has people who were the ones starting the Internet. If the protocol manages to become the standard for M2M communication, ICO investors are sure to get Bitcoin like profits.